Is the quantity of human-induced CO₂ emissions insignificant and incapable of causing global warming? No, that's not true: Scientists contend that human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, have elevated atmospheric CO₂ levels by nearly 50 percent since the onset of the industrial age.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published on TikTok on October 24, 2023. The person speaking in the video is Rudolf Huliak, a climate change skeptic and a former nominee for the position of environment minister in the new Slovak government. In the video, Huliak, speaking in Slovak, (translated into English by Lead Stories staff) says:
Do you know how much of the entire human population contributes to the production of CO2 over the entire human footprint on the globe? Do you know that number? 4% of which the EU produces 6% of that 4%... We are going to sacrifice the comfort and standard of living of the entire population. We are going to go back to the caves...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Oct 25 10:32:17 2023 UTC)
Huliak, a climate change denier, had previously been nominated for the position of environment minister in the new Slovak government. However, his nomination was rejected by Slovak President Zuzana Caputova on October 19, 2023, due to his views.
The 4 percent figure, cited in the quote, is not based on any scientific evidence, according to Alexander Ac, a scientist at the Czech Academy of Sciences who also focuses on global warming. Scientists agree that CO₂ emission caused by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, cement production, or deforestation, are behind the increase of the total CO₂ levels in the atmosphere, Ac told Lead Stories in a phone interview on October 27, 2023.
CO₂ represents only 0.04 percent of the atmosphere but its impact on the climate change is massive. Since 1850, CO₂ levels have increased from 280 parts per million to around 420 parts per million, according to NASA. That is over 300 times faster than the natural increase in CO₂ levels associated with warming Earth at the end of the last Ice Age. Scientists understand that this increase is tied to the human burning of fossil fuels, NASA says.
The Mauna Loa Observatory data, which provides the longest record of direct CO₂ measurements in the atmosphere since 1958, can be viewed here.
CO₂ is naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth's carbon cycle. It is the natural circulation of carbon among the atmosphere, oceans, soil, plants, and animals. However, human activities have altered the cycle, both by adding more CO₂ into the atmosphere, and also by affecting the ability of natural sinks (places or processes that remove CO₂ from the atmosphere), such as forests, oceans and soils to remove and store CO₂ from the atmosphere.
Lead Stories has already debunked a similar claim about climate change here.
